Get Electrified!

Submitter: This book seems pretty obvious for weeding. A tech book about PCs from 1998? Time to upgrade! If you notice the back pocket [pictured below], a helpful librarian has made a note that the companion disk went missing not long after this book was published. This is something my Cataloguer and I discuss in great lengths. She wants to leave all supplementary materials in the back of the book. Her argument is that it makes the material more accessible. As the Acquisitions librarian, I don’t want to see what happened to this book happen to any of ours. If we are going to spend money on items, then we also need to take good care of them. My library director agrees and we catalogue all disks, CD-ROMs and other objects and place them behind the circ desk. We then put notes on the pocket to let the circ staff know that they need to check out the supplementary item. Most times patrons pass on the supplementary material. Hence, the opposition to cataloguing them from the Cataloguer. How do others handle this?

Holly: We note under the barcode and in a note that pops up on the computer that there is supplementary material, but we leave it in the book. Upon its check out AND its return, the folks at circulation should be prompted to look for the disc to see if it is still there. In fact, they have to acknowledge the pop-up by closing it before they can actually move on to the next thing. Read the screen, people! Read the screen. Oh, and yeah, weed this for age and missing parts!

We also have the popups, and a lot of indignant patrons have to go back home and find the CDs they may or may not have “accidentally” forgotten.
I’ve always wondered- since CDs are such a delicate medium, how long do they last in library circulation?